Contemporary Craft: Clay Works - Smithsonian American Art ...

Artful Connections
Post-Visit Lesson: Contemporary Craft: Clay Works
Grades 4 – 7
Overview
After completing this lesson, students will be better able to incorporate artistic and functional design
considerations into their artwork, taking into account the factors that differentiate functional and nonfunctional
ceramics.
Background
Crafts emphasize materiality—clay, glass, fiber, wood, metal—and the technical means by which the properties
of these materials are manipulated. The contemporary crafts movement is a fairly recent phenomenon,
although the origins of the art can be traced to prehistoric time. Evolving from ancient workshops, medieval
guild trades and the Industrial Revolution, which gave rise to the very industries associated with crafts today,
studio crafts often pay homage to function at the same time that they discard utility as a concern.
The term “teapot” calls to mind a functional object with a spout, handle, finial and base, however some
contemporary craft artists have created teapots that were never intended to brew tea but to be enjoyed as a
purely visual and tactile experience. When creating the teapot as a craft object, many artists are concerned with
the physical construction that lends the piece functionality while also incorporating inspirations from nature,
memory and sometimes other artistic traditions.
Discussion and Activity
Open discussion by having students look carefully at Ragner Naess’ Teapot with Lid. Encourage discussion by
asking the following questions:
• What is this object? What physical features tell you that this is a teapot?
• How would you use it?
• What features did the artist need to incorporate to make the teapot useful?
• What other things did the artist need to keep in mind to make sure the teapot is easy and safe to use?
Have students fold a plain piece of paper into thirds. On the top third, have students sketch a basic, functional
teapot of their own design. What features should they include to make sure that their teapot works?
Have students compare and contrast Teapot with Lid with Ralph Bacerra’s Teapot. Encourage discussion by
asking the following questions:
• What are the similarities between this and the teapot we just looked at? What are the differences?
• Does it look like this teapot would be easy and safe to use? Why or why not?
• When might you use this teapot? When might you use the other teapot? Why?
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